HONORABLE JOE H. FUSSELL, a prominent attorney and
ex-official of Columbia, Tenn., is a native of Maury county, and is a man too
well-known in the state to need any formal introduction. He is a man who has
made a record for himself along all lines of effort engaging his attention.

He is the son of Henry B. and Eliza C. Fussell, the former
a native of North Carolina and the latter of Maury county. The father was an
architect and contractor, and Captain Fussell learned carpentering under his
father's instructions, becoming a finished workman before his twentieth year. He
was superintended the construction of some of the finest residences in the
county, which stand today as monuments of his handiwork. The father died in his
seventy-second year, and the mother died at the age of eighty-three. The
Fussells are from England, and the maternal ancestors were of Scotch-lrish
descent. The maternal grandfather, Joseph Kincaid, came from Kentucky among the
first settlers of Maury county. In Kentucky he married Eliza McClees at the
home of Mr. Clay, an uncle of Henry Clay, the latter being present at the
wedding. While a young man Captain Fussell allied himself with the cause of the
Confederacy, enlisting in the Confederate service in May, 1861, as a member of
the First Tennessean regiment of cavalry. In this capacity he rendered valiant
service as a soldier and officer.

The first blood shed in battle during the Civil war is
known to have been in the command in which Captain Fussell served, in a skirmish
on Mud river, in Kentucky, where one of his regiment was killed. The company 'of
which he was captain was also the last to suffer in the final skirmish of the
war, and even after the final surrender of the Confederate armies. Captain
Fussell had many narrow escapes and thrilling experiences, both in the line and
on staff duty. After the surrender he opened a law office in Columbia, Tenn.,
having been admitted to the bar in August, 1860. He soon- attained more than
mediocre achievements, which led to his early elevation to office. He served
sixteen years as attorney-general of his district, and in the discharge of his
duties came to be recognized as one of the leading criminal lawyers of
Tennessee. In his professional capacity he has been associated with some of the
most important civil and criminal actions in the various courts of the state.
He was one of the first to advocate the legal regulation of the liquor traffic
and the adoption of stringent temperance laws; took the stump as a temperance
advocate and canvassed the state for the cause; incurred in this the strongest
opposition from the liquor dealers and their friends, often resulting in
serious difficulties, and a number of times he faced revolvers and knives in the
efforts made to drive him from the canvass. In 1882 he was nominated by the
"State Credit" wing of the Democratic party of Tennessee for the office of
governor. The nominating convention was composed of such men as James C.
Bailey, M. C., GOV. James D. Porter, Gen. W. H. Jackson, Judge Harvey Lee
Jackson, Hon. Ed. I. James, Judge Mac Dickison, Gen. Luke Wright, and a host of
other prominent men of the state. The feature of the campaign was opposition to
repudiation of the state debt and the acceptance of the proposition for
settlement as made by the bondholders, which would have honorably relieved the
state of more than $11,000,000 of debt. The opposing wing of the party favored
repudiation of the debt; or at least a payment of 50 cents on the dollar. This
policy prevailed, and the state debt was settled on that basis. Captain Fussell
was elected president of the amendment work in Tennessee, which- had in view the
prohibition of the manufacture and sale of liquors in the state. This work he
followed through the legislature, having headquarters at Nashville until the
amendment was defeated. This required a year of his time, and during that period
lie conducted a temperance paper at Nashville, largely at his own expense. For
this arduous service and the exercise of his time and talents he asked and
received nothing. In 1901 he was an Independent Democrat candidate for Congress
in the seventh district ; made a canvass of twenty-one days, carried his
opponent's native county, the strongest Democratic county in the state, by a
large majority, and came very near being elected, the final count giving the
election to the regular candidate by a very small margin. Maury county gave him
a good majority, the first time since the war a regular nominee of the Democracy
failed to carry the county. He also carried the largest Republican county in the
district Captain Fussell is at present a member of the state temperance
committee, and is highly gratified to see the progress made along temperance
lines. He took an active part in the defeat of the "dispensary" law, and in the
resultant public good.

Mrs. Margaret B. Fussell, wife of Captain Fussell, was a
daughter of Capt. William Roberts and a granddaughter of Brig. Gen Isaac
Roberts, who served under Gen. Andrew Jackson. She is a grandniece of Gen. James
Robertson, the founder of Nashville. Captain and Mrs. Fussell have no children.
After Captain Fussell's father died, he took his mother into his own home and
cared for her until her death. Capt. S. W. Steele married one of his sisters,
and after the war died in Nashville. Another brother-in-law was Rev. Baxter
Calhoun Chapman, a noted Cumberland Presbyterian minister, who died.

Captain Fussell has been a Mason from early manhood, and is
now a member of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee, and was master of Euphemia lodge,
Columbia, Tennessee for five years. He is also a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight
Templar, and was for five years eminent commander.

In 1880 he was elected grand commander of the Knights
Templars of Tennessee; has frequently been state representative in the triennial
conclaves, and is an active Masonic lecturer in the state. He is also a member
of the Knights of Pythias, was the organizer and first chancellor commander of
the lodge in Columbia, and held that position for six years. In early life he
was a Whig but when the state seceded he took sides with the Confederacy and at
the close of the war became identified with the Democratic patty, whose fortunes
he has generally followed, though he has canvassed the state for the Prohibition
candidates for the presidency. He is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church and has been a ruling elder since 1856. He was the organizer of the
Tabernacle church of that denomination in Columbia; has represented his
presbytery in the general assembly of the United States some ten or twelve
times; has several times been moderator of his presbytery and of the state
synod; and has been Sunday school superintendent for thirty-five years. He is
now the president of the Cumberland Presbyterian council, of anti-unionists,
composed of loyal Cumberland Presbyterians who oppose the proposed union of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church with the Presbyterian church in the United States
of America, or what is known as the Northern Presbyterian church, Those whom he
represents propose to remain in the Cumberland Presbyterian church and adhere to
the original doctrines of that church. In this work he is now actively engaged.